Luke 10:25-37, Love (7)

The Objects of Our Love

We concluded the last post by noting that Christ-love cannot be just a theological idea.  It is our lifestyle, given that the Christ who loved me on the cross is the same Christ who lives in me, whose life I am living.  Thus we noted: Calvary love is to be expressed by a husband to his wife and to fellow-members of the Body of Christ.  Let us remind ourselves of the various commands to love given in Scripture.

·       Matthew 22:37: We are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.  That is where we started in our opening posts on “love.”

·       Matthew 22:39: We are to love our neighbor.  This is amplified in today’s reading.

o   Contrast Lk. 10:25-28 with the rich young ruler of Luke 18:18-23.  The initial question is essentially the same: “what shall I do to inherit eternal life.”  Jesus leads them differently, though each has a significant issue of unbelief.  In the latter, Jesus lists the social commands of the Ten Commandments.  In the former, the discussion revolves around the two great commandments. 

o   Jesus, seeing the same self-sufficiency in both men, hits at the unbelief by dealing with the “neighbor.”  Consider this.  Love, agape, the love of Christ on the cross, must be expressed.  It is expressed when it meets needs, as in the story.  Love is manifested in the phrases, take care of him (v35) and showed mercy to him (v37).  We have many relationships that generally involve phileo, what we call “brotherly love.”  But when we see a person in need, any person according to the Good Samaritan, and we meet that need, we are dealing with agape. 

o   We also need to note that “love” is not always, and actually, is rarely as heroic as what the Samaritan dealt with.  Yet, “love” always will emphasize giving to meet a need, to the point of sacrifice.

·       Matthew 22:39: We just want to note the phrase, as yourself.  Thus, some want to emphasize that we need to love ourselves.  But that is not what this is about.  First, it is not a command; it is an assumption.  It is simply what we do.  We meet our needs.  We are merciful to ourselves.  It is what is commonly called the “Golden Rule,” doing unto others as you would have them do to you.

·       John 13:34-35: We are to love our brother.  This is different than our neighbor.  It specifically refers to those who are spiritual kin.  Jesus tells this to His disciples after one of their “who is the greatest” arguments.  And He tells them that this is how the world will know we are His disciples.

·       Matthew 5:43-46: We are to love our enemy.  The enemy is one who curses you, hates you or takes advantage of you.  Love is described as blessing him.  And in a great companion passage (Rom. 12:17-21), it is meeting a need, giving him food when he’s hungry and water when he’s thirsty.  Again, love is never simply an idea or even a feeling; it is practical action (1 John 3:16-18).